The Cygnus

[SIG-nus]   A popular name for Cygnus is the Northern Cross, and indeed its shape is far larger and more distinctive than the famous Southern Cross. In its cruciform shape the Greeks visualized the long neck, outstretched wings and stubby tail of a swan flying along the Milky Way, in which it is embedded. The mythographers tell us that the swan is Zeus in disguise, on his way to one of his innumerable love affairs, but his exact quarry is a subject of some disagreement.

One version of the tale says that Zeus seduced Queen Leda of Sparta in the form of a swan by the banks of the river Eurotas; with this story in mind, Germanicus Caesar refers to the swan as the 'winged adulterer'. Leda was the wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta, which considerably complicated the outcome because she also slept with her husband later the same night.

According to one interpretation, she gave birth to a single egg from which hatched the twins Castor andPolydeuces as well as Helen (later to become famous as Helen of Troy). The shell of this egg was said to have been put on display at a temple in Sparta, hanging by ribbons from the ceiling.